The 2nd Bedroom

This door leads into the 2nd bedroom and the trim in the hallway is not done yet, as you can plainly see. I just wanted to show some progress here, though I feel like I've worked and worked and gotten nowhere.

I added a small piece of wood over the door where a transom window would have been. As I've said, the Houseworks door is taller and it leaves little room for a window.

The bay is removable and, while you can't tell from the inside, you sure can from the outside, but I think a decorative trim piece will fix that. We'll see later on down the line. I have only this piece of trim in the hall and will be finishing that up in the next few days. I'm on hold as Hobby Lobby ran out of baseboard and I need to wait for them to restock and they're not too quick about those things.

Give me a few days and I'll have more to show. There is MUCH to do in this hallway!!!

Little things

Nope..no photos. Nothing looks any different in the house; all the work has been on the work table, except for a little painting in the Master bedroom.

I started on what was to be the transom windows and had to change the plan. The Houseworks doors are bigger/taller than the original doors. Allowing for the higher size and the frame of transom windows, I would have been left with too small an area for a window, so it's becoming just wall. I've finished the painting of the blue side and, today, will work on the other sides' colors, maybe get them fitted into the space.

Yesterday, I bought the last pack of baseboard at Hobby Lobby; will go back today for either the fireplace or crown moulding. Clear vellum was 1/2 off and that's what I'm going to use for "stained glass" in the French doors and oval windows. I need fresh ink cartridges for the printer, which is fine. I have plenty of time and I'll need it still for researching. Someone told me about doing this and I am spending a lot of time looking for the right look.

I'm dragging in the Garfield, working more in other areas of my big house, but I am getting piles of trim pieces stained, varnished, and ready to install. I like to let it pile up and then just have a day with installing.

While it's still in the future, I'm thinking about this tower that is in the front of this house. I think I want it to have a fieldstone look on the entire outside of the tower and in the interior of the third floor, so I'm cruising the supplies needed for that. If I'm going to do it, I need to before I work inside it, which is not all that far away, plus I should do it before I add the siding, which IS a while away.

To be continued........................

Optical Illusions

It is NOT crooked!! Okay, I admit that I cut it a bit crooked, but I have 1/2" trim pieces, top and bottom, that will cover that and it'll work. I have checked with one of those trims and the little gold medallion like thingie on the paper lines up perfectly!! It just LOOKS crooked. However, on Saturday, it really was crooked and I had to pull off the piece of wallpaper from the both walls and replace it. Lucky for me, since this was a printie, I had printed out extra paper, just in case, so I had enough to replace what I removed.( If I'd needed to reprint, I'd have had to install new ink cartridges. )

There I was, one arm through the hallway bay window, the other arm though the French doors, wetting and removing the printie wallpaper. I had used "Zinsser" border adhesive to get them up there and they were a piece of cake to remove them. ( I love Zinsser products. ) Got the wall cleaned up and started over. I measured all the way through the process and realized it's the printie that is crooked....sorry, Jennifer's printables. Once I realized it was not me, I felt so much better and quit cussing.

Because of this little snafu, I had to change my plans of putting up the trim in the hallway and, instead, started painting in the bedrooms. I papered the 2nd bedroom first. This paintable wallpaper dries quicker than the printie wallpaper and I was able to paint almost right away. I had only the inner wall to do and the paint went on easily....True Value's 4oz jar of tester paint. I'm glad I chose this happy yellow, Bee Pollen, as it really does brighten up the room. See where the opening is? Where the room light shines through? That's where part of the roof goes and I'll have to wait until the roof is done to do the crown work. In this room, I have to install the door, transom window ( which I'm working on ), the fireplace, baseboard, and, lastly, the crown moulding. FYI, the door to the very right leads into the library.

Next, I worked on the Master bedroom. This has a 1/2 wall of the paintable wallpaper ( Thanks always, Kim ) The paper takes less paint than the wood, but it's all done now and I can move on to the trim. This paint is also True Value's tester paint, "Nana". The order for this is the door and transom window, the window seat in the tower area, the fireplace..which I'm going to buy instead of build...the baseboard, the chair rail, and the crown moulding. Again, in some places, I'll have to get the roof on first.

I am delighted to be this far and, for the next few days, will be staining, varnishing, and gluing. I have a lot of shopping to do, as I have only small pieces of trim and need the new fireplace. I'm going to attempt the stained glass look in the transom windows and the little oval window in the 2nd bedroom and have some research to do. I'm making the windows from scratch, because of my kit bashing. While I fumble my way though a stained glass look, I'll work on the other trim too.

It's coupon week at Hobby Lobby!! YEAH!!!!!!!!! I'll go get something each morning and send Ed each afternoon. I need a LOT of trim. I'm slow, installing trim, making it as right as I can, especially the crown moulding, but I think this is where being precise really counts and most of what makes the room look so real.

And, while I work on this floor, making it look like a home, I'll be thinking about the 3rd floor, the attic, and trying to figure out how to make it work. I also have to accept that soon, because of the holidays approaching, I'll have to clean and put up for a while, as this little spare room is the only place I have to work with for Christmas boxes. BooHoo.....but I'm a Christmas freak, so the reason is okay with me. I'll use that time down for sanding the millions of trim pieces and roofing that will go on the house.

Suddenly, It Looks Like a House

What a difference a floor makes! It looks like a house now. Note that when I edit the photos and change the balance, the colors change a bit. The Master bedroom is coral, not orange, and the second bedroom is a true yellow.

There are a million things to do here, as expected. I need to spackle some rough edges, fill in some gaps, add another small wall between the 2 bedrooms, and lots of trim. I'm letting it sit glued as you see it until tomorrow to insure the the glue holds fast, then to work I go.

Oh, I think it look so beautiful and, again, I find myself just sitting there looking and writing down chores and notes so I won't forget my ideas.

I will first complete the hallway. I need to finish the wallpaper, install the French doors, the bay window, 2 doors and transoms, and add the crown and baseboard.There will be "L" trim pieces at the base of the center walls that will overlap onto the ceiling below. It'll clean up the transition look.

In the Master, add the partition between it and the other bedroom, more papering and painting, the window seat, the fireplace, and the crown and baseboard. There's also a small spot on the floor that needs satin......I'd removed the wall there and haven't filled it in yet. And, in the second bedroom, there is more papering and painting, the fireplace, and the crown, and baseboard.

As I've said all along, I've felt like I've build this from the inside out. There have been so many tricky spots, corners, nooks, curves, and hidden places that building the whole house as designed and then decorating would have been terribly frustrating. Those of you who've built ahead of me know what I mean and those behind me, be warned. It's a puzzle to say it lightly.

I'm leaving the blog until Monday when I'm sure I'll have had tons of things completed by then. There's a pile of trim on my worktable I'm sanding and about to stain and a long list of "to do's". So, I'll turn this chair around 180 degrees and get to work.

Second Floor Progress

The "progress" is v-e-r-y slow. All I've done today is paint the walls, paint the walls, and, then, paint the walls. That's it, except......

I found all the pieces needed to make the window seat, the 3 tower windows, 1 wide window,a fireplace for the Master Bedroom, and the small oval window. The window seat is supposed to have little pieces with decorative tabs punched out. All I can find is one piece so I'll use leftover beadboard for the sides of the window seats. I lucked out, found one already stained and varnished, just have to cut it to size and touch it up. I already have a fireplace that I bought from a friend of mine (Thanks, Mary Jo ) . It's the one we can buy with the green marble. I love the marble and I'm going to clean up/rough up and repaint the mantle and sides and do something different with it.

Tomorrow, once the paint and painted wallpaper are all dry, I'll add the ceiling/3rd story floor and the inner walls to the bedrooms. THAT'S the part that excites me.

Just a Mess on the Second Floor

Oh, everything is all a mess and looks confusing. On the right is the number 2 bedroom with stripe embossed paper on in, floor to ceiling, with 2 coats of "Bee Pollen" paint. On the left is the master bedroom with only one coat of paint in the tower area..it will all be paint in the tower...and the white paper is embossed fleur de lis with no paint papered just to chair rail line. The entire wall, paper and wood will be painted "Nana" and then the chair rail in between. The chair rail will be decorative, but I haven't picked it out. In the middle, is the hallway. See where "Peanuts" in the funny paper is? That's where the inner walls will be. This'll take me another few days to finish up, but I wanted to show you something. Sorry, it's a mess, but...well, you know.

Everything is drying off right now..sticking or the paint drying and I'll just leave it until tomorrow. I have nothing planned for my day, so I should get a lot accomplished. Until later.

2nd Floor Interior Work

It's not exciting to look at spackle and paint, so I'll save you that here. I have the wall corners spackled and sanded and wiped down on all junctions of the 2nd floor interior. All is smooth and ready for paint or wallpaper.

The ceiling was divided into the 3 areas..hallway, Master bedroom, and second bedroom and are all painted. The hallway is painted a very lightened coordinating blue "Expressionist", the Master bedroom is painted a lightened shade of "Nana", and the second bedroom, a lightened shade of "Bee Pollen". All of these paints are from True Value's collection of "Color Made Simple" which are actually test colors...4 oz jars of paint to use to see if you like a color before you buy a gallon or so for a larger space. They are perfect for the miniature house. They go on easily, dry quickly, and are enough for the 2-3 coats that are usually required. I lightened them with white paint and then, thinned them a bit with water, so not to make them too thick and you really can tell the difference.

Coming up next will be to paper the walls with the paintable wallpaper that Kim Hammond sent me ( Thanks, again, Kimi!!) The second bedroom will go first using a textured striped paper. I have more than enough of this and will get it on the walls, allow for drying time, and then paint the paper. I'm going to hit a snag here and will have to be careful with a gap that is made by the slope of the not yet installed roofing. The bizarre construction areas of the Garfield will strike again. This is a photo of ANOTHER house and you can see the odd area at the top of the wall that I'll have to fill in the wallpaper to match. How fun will that be?

On the far right of this room, right where the photo ends, is the door into the library. On the far left, where the photo ends, is supposed to be a door leading into the Master bedroom. I have filled that doorway in and there will be no door at all. Doing so will give me added wall space. A fireplace will go in this room, also.

The Master bedroom will have another paintable paper with fleur de lis on it. I need to fix up the window seat for the tower and either make or buy a fireplace for it.

Each Houseworks doorway has been adapted to fit into the altered doorway ( they were way too small) and I have the basic transom windows ready, but both will need some tweaking. I also have French doors for the hallway to stain on the inside and paint on the outside, not to mention the windows and their trim, some stained, some painted.

All this work should keep me busy for several days...through the weekend, I'm guessing. I don't want to show any of the spaces until I'm done...call me odd ( my sister does ) but I prefer not to show off the ugly, only the completed pretty.

This is an area that I am thoroughly enjoying, in spite of the cat and the problems with the ceiling. And it seems, considering how I'm going to go about it all, that everything will fall into place at the same time. I love it when that happens.

I have looked at just about every photo of the Garfield there is online-many of them your's, dear reader, and have scrutinized each room and technique, some of which I've borrowed. Every one is different, really no two the same, which has made building this so interesting. Once I get this floor done, my move to the third floor will, again, prove to have many quirks, which will take some heavy thinking about how to approach it. I know of a few of the pitfalls, but if you'd be so kind as to warn me of what's to come, I'd appreciate it. No need to tell me how to fix it, just what to look out for. Forewarned is forearmed.

Thank you for being here. I so enjoy your visits and comments. Your advice always gives me courage.